Frank Horvat was born in Italy and came to Paris after World War II. In 1951s and 1961s, he collaborated with world-famous fashion magazines such as VOGUE, ELLE, Life, paris match Pictorial and Harper's Bazaar to record the fashion world at that time with a unique perspective. In his fashion blockbusters, the protagonists are a handful of celebrities, including Coco Chanel and Hardy Amies, who founded haute couture fashion brands, Ferini, a famous Italian director who has died, josephine baker, a French black musician, and a lot of stars and supermodels. Unlike most fashion photographers at that time, horvath introduced news photography, pulling models to subway entrances, small bars and food markets, taking ordinary people as the background, taking the subway as the scene, or simply taking snapshots. In horvath's works, fashion is full of details and more vivid.

In a photo taken in 1958, Coco Chanel hunched over the stairs and watched her fashion show reflected in the mirror. This snap photo has a strong news flavor, showing Coco's unknown side in an instant. In another photo taken in 1959, Anna karina, a new wave actress who was red and purple at that time, stood among a group of dirty workers in a haute couture dress, holding a glass and gracefully greeted her with a toast. This photo is exactly what horvath used to do.

In this way, horvath has traveled to almost every fashion capital, recording the most cutting-edge information of fashion for nearly 31 years.

Now, horvath and his family have settled in Provence, and they seldom go out and contact with the outside world by mail. After receiving the interview email from the reporter, he replied a day later. Horvath has been to China, Beijing and Chongqing when he was young, and photographed Beijing Hutong and North Sichuan Plain in the morning fog. He emailed reporters back and forth more than a dozen times and interviewed tens of thousands of words. Horvath, 79, is still full of strong curiosity. Unlike many photographers of his time, he enjoys emerging digital photography and the Internet.

B= Bund Pictorial

F= Frank Horvat

Nowadays, fashion magazines are still the same

B: In the 1951s and 1961s, you shot fashion blockbusters in the form of news reports. Why didn't you follow the crowd and shoot them in the studio?

F: I can explain why in one word: lazy. It is much easier for me to work in my own way than to listen to others.

B: when did you try this photography? Does it mean anything to you?

F: I started shooting like this in 1957. At that time, it was no big deal for me, because I could only shoot in this way.

B: You first met the famous photographer Henry Cartier-Blacet in 1951. What was your impression of him?

F: he taught me to aim high and take photography as an art. In a sense, photography can make people see the world from an angle that has never been seen before; Good photos should make people feel real and have no choice. Not many photographers are qualified by this standard. I think the biggest compliment to my work is that someone said: I have never seen a tree like this after seeing the tree you photographed.

B: You respect Bresson very much. Bresson suggested that you can't do news photography and fashion photography at the same time. Why didn't you take his advice at that time? What do you think of his original suggestion now?

F: I thought he was right at that time, but I just wanted to do fashion photography and do it in my own way. Looking back now, what I took at that time was ok, no matter what he said.

B: Your fashion photos are very dramatic. The models in the photos are not just clothes hangers, but people with flesh and blood. Did you do your homework before shooting?

F: actually, many of them are improvised, but to do this, you must know clearly what you want.

B: You have a famous work. The background of the picture is five men dressed in dark clothes and wearing gentlemen's hats, holding binoculars to look at the back of the distance, and the foreground is a graceful woman dressed in black and masked with white gauze. The Givenchy brand hat worn by the woman in the picture is suddenly highlighted. Please tell me about the creativity at that time.

F: it was an idea given to me by an art director.

B: how important is an artistic director to a fashion photographer?

F: The relationship between an artistic director and a photographer is just like that between an emperor and his own painters and poets. They feed the people below and give instructions at the same time. Of course, there are good and bad artistic directors. In fact, the bad ones are much better than the good ones. I know many artistic directors, some of whom are terrible. Only one person has really had a positive influence on me, and that is Marvin Israel, the artistic director of Harper's Bazaar.

B: many people say that reportage photography needs "natural suddenness". what about fashion photography?

F: I agree, so is fashion photography, because it is definitely not a good photo to take a second photo.

B: you have cooperated with many famous fashion magazines in Europe and America, but now you say that fashion magazines are not as good as before. Why?

F: when I was young, I always bought magazines out of curiosity, and I always found surprises, but now the magazines are nothing new, just more professional than before.

I don't think the future will be bright

B: Many photographers are deeply influenced by their growing experiences. What about you?

F: of course, everyone is the same. For example, my family speaks German, Italian and French, so I learned many languages. I wanted to learn Chinese! This is a completely different language, which will probably take me a lifetime. Just like speaking different languages, I like to constantly change the way I communicate with people, even photography. I also engage in news photography and fashion photography at the same time.

B: what about your family and your wife? Does taking pictures make you more attractive to the opposite sex?

F: I have loved several women, some of whom were models I met when I took photos. I have been married four times, and three of them have children.

B: You show optimism in the photos. Are you an optimist?

F: I'm going to let you down-I'm not an optimist (that's pessimism). I think people nowadays have no feelings like machines, and I don't think the future will be much better. For me, there are too few beautiful things, so I like to shoot positive and beautiful things, not necessarily beautiful women or beautiful scenery, but probably delicious food, which is everything I like in life, literature and painting. I even like Jane Peter Wiggin's works with strange style. Even a dead dog or a big pervert can find the unique light of good art in them.

I respect every subject

B: You said, "Even the best photographer can only take a few (or hundreds) successful photos in his life." What about you? How many successful works are there?

F: I believe that a successful photographer can take many good photos in his life, but only a few of them can be like a once-in-a-lifetime miracle, and the audience will be inexplicably moved and can see something beyond the skill. Photographers can only have very few such photos in their lifetime. I have it, too, but I won't tell you. It's up to you to observe.

B: You also said: "Photographers are lonely, because they are always hesitant and always look for it." Do you have such a search experience?

F: I once went to Greece and rented a car at the airport to drive by myself. On the way, I met a flock of sheep and a blonde shepherdess, who was as beautiful as the goddess in Greek mythology. At that time, it was very late, the light was not good, I was very tired, and I thought I would meet many such shepherdesses in the future, so I didn't stop to take pictures for the next few days. But I was wrong. Later, I never saw anyone like her again.

B: which photographer's style you don't appreciate in your book "Dialogue with the Master Photographer"? Why?

F: The 14 photographers in the book all have their own characteristics, and I appreciate them all. But there are some things I can't accept, such as Nobuyoshi Araki, a famous Japanese photographer (famous for his erotic photography), who tied some naked girls to chairs in one of his photos? 6? 8? 6? 8

B: But Jane Peter Wiggin's works are also violent, cruel and perverse. Why can you accept Wiggin but not Nobuyoshi Araki?

F: Yes, Wiggin's works are as unacceptable as Araki's, but in Wiggin, I can see the so-called good art, good photography and good composition. He gives dignity to the characters, but Araki doesn't.

B: please summarize your photography idea in a few sentences.

F: I respect everyone I have photographed.

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